CHAMPIONS 2017/18
ASKED what the first thing he looks for when he signs a player, Pep Guardiola had no hesitation.
The interviewer might have been expecting him to talk of technical excellence, or relentless work rate, of stats or skill or strength, both physical and mental.
Guardiola expects his players to have those things, in abundance, but his answer revealed the simple truth at the heart of his City revolution.
“The fact they are good people, that’s the first reason,” he said, levelling the questioner with that amiable stare that always seems to teeter on the brink of threat.
Scribblers and speakers have run out of superlatives to describe his City team this season, but one word perhaps supersedes the lot. Serene. The football has been regal, a colourful cavalcade through the rabble which constitutes the rest of the Premier League.
But, like a swan gliding across a lake, the beauty and smoothness of what you see is created by some furious paddling below the surface.
Guardiola is the man responsible for the paddling.
City had six or seven years of tumult following Sheikh Mansour’s revolution, a time when, by necessity, there had to be a large turnover of staff, money had to be thrown at problems, and they ended up with some fine players, but also flawed players. Carlos Tevez was the catalyst for turning City from a middling team to a Champions League regular – but Guardiola would not have countenanced a move for such a self-obsessed footballer.
He has pieced together a squad which works for each other, fights for each other and stifles the worst manifestations of ego without killing individualism and expression.
Not everything he has done has been popular, but there is always a sound reason, and the players are made fully aware of those reasons.
The way Guardiola swept into City and ushered fans’ favourite Joe Hart out of the door shocked many – from the outside it looked brutal, no way to treat a man who was Blue through and through and who had served the club well.
But Hart, while clearly hurt by the decision, has no vindictiveness towards the City manager, who explained it was simply a reflection on his kicking abilities – he was not the keeper he wanted.
The new boss banned wifi from certain areas of the training complex – he wanted his players communicating with each other and the staff, not engaging with phones and Ipads.
He found the practice of a player fiddling with a device while undergoing a massage insulting to the masseur, so he stopped it.
The players now eat together whenever practicable, they socialise much more – and no longer in small groups determined by nationality or language – and petty jealousies
PEP Guardiola has now won league titles in three different countries.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss endured an uncharacteristic season without silverware in his first year in England.
But he took the first opportunity to open his account this time around with Carabao Cup success against Arsenal in February and, after three league titles in both Spain and Germany, United’s loss to West Brom has now added England to that list.
The League Cup win adds to two domestic cups with each of his former clubs.
He also won three Super Cups in each country and will have the chance to compete for next season’s Community Shield against this season’s FA Cup winners.
Finally, Guardiola’s Barcelona side won both the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup in 2009 and 2011 - a double he repeated with Bayern in 2013. and rivalries are no longer tolerated by the group.
Roberto Mancini was the right man at the right time for City, a man with an explosive temper, but whose intrinsic shyness and focus on the job meant he often came across as aloof and arrogant.
Some players disliked him, as did many of the staff, who still speak of a